Sunday 6 July 2014

Jerry Maguire (1996 Cameron Crowe & scr)

What warmly written characters you'll find in a Crowe, more so than in his rather more hard-edged role model Billy Wilder's films. Superbly written film benefits also from Janusz Kaminski on camera and Joe Hutshing (who started working for Oliver Stone) cutting, and great performances from Tom Cruise and Renée Zellweger and the genuinely happy-looking Jonathan Lipnicki, though we musn't ignore Cuba Gooding Jr and his wife Regina King, baddy Jay Mohr, and sister Bonnie Hunt.

The philosophical agent and Jerry's mentor is played by Jared Jussim, who was Deputy General Counsel and Executive Vice President of the Intellectual Property Department of Sony Pictures. Cameron wanted Billy Wilder to play the part but was told by the legendary director to find a proper actor instead. Jared had no prior acting experience, and was cast for the role on the strength of reading one line after walking into a production meeting with Crowe and James L Brooks.

"Show me the Oscar!"

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